Crompton skateboard park set to open mid-September as skaters drop in early
WORCESTER — When Tyler Hogan was a Worcester Academy student, Charlie Mull was his English teacher.
Years after graduation, Shakespeare is not the subject anymore — skateboard flips and slides are.
On a sunny August morning, the duo could be found with their skateboards at Crompton skate park, which will officially open to the public in mid-September, according to city spokesman Robert Burgess.
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Still, it’s not uncommon to hear the rumble of skateboards a month before the park’s official opening.
The project to build the park was approved by the city Parks and Recreation Commission in January 2021, with $2 million allotted in the fiscal 2021 budget.
A groundbreaking was held in November 2021.
According to Mull and Hogan, the skate park is already usable, although the city’s Department of Public Works and Parks would not confirm whether work is finished.
“I like the transitions here,” Hogan, 23, said of the park's concrete ramps. “They’re so mellow. It’s not scary going in and they’re super easy and fun and flowy.”
Worcide DIY
Plans to build the park first surfaced in 2012 but were quickly shelved due to lack of funding.
In 2018, the project found new life following the sudden leveling of Worcide DIY, a skate park off Washington and Plymouth streets that was built by a group of skaters in 2014.
Because the demolishment was done without warning, the city suffered backlash from the skater community.
Skateboarders at the time thought the surprise demolition was the city’s effort to clean up the area before finalizing a deal to bring the Pawtucket Red Sox to Worcester.
City officials said that the park had to be immediately demolished because it was “a disaster waiting to happen” and poised a “serious life-safety hazard" as it was located next to a homeless encampment and piles of trash and the site of a fire.
The city also apologized to the skateboarding community for a lack of communication and pledged to work with them for the construction of a new park.
In 2019, Worcide member John Powers told the Telegram & Gazette that the plans for a new park were favored by the skater community, although the hard work of the Worcide crew could not be replaced for the demolished park due to its DIY nature.
At the 14,000-square-foot skate park at Crompton, skaters will practice their tricks on bowls, rails, hips, quarter pipes, a flow section and a manny pad.
The skating sections form a triangle that also features ground artwork of the city logo — a red heart enclosed in a green wreath.
Mull, who had also skated at Worcide, praised the new skating grounds.
"Obviously, a DIY park that was built by the community is super rad because they’re built by the actual skaters and kids are really into that,” Mull said. “But this park is much more accessible than anything that has been previously in Worcester. I think it is friendly to beginner skaters.”
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Crompton park skateboard park Worcide Worcester Parks & Recreation
